Speakers

André Pienaar is the Chief Executive and the Founder of C5 Capital, a specialist venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity, space and energy security with offices in Washington DC, London, Luxembourg and Vienna.

Born in South Africa, with a professional career in the UK and US, André Pienaar is a cybersecurity, space and energy expert and investor. As the Chief Executive and Founder of C5 Capital, he seeks out opportunities to grow companies in these sectors.

In addition, he is a philanthropist who devotes his energy to international efforts to promote peace and global security, protect children, support veterans and pursue scientific causes.

André began his career at Kroll, Inc., and was its youngest managing director until the successful sale of the company to Marsh & McLennan. While at Kroll, he was the strategist for the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), or Scorpions, an elite law enforcement and counter terrorist unit in South Africa that was created by President Mandela. He advised the Scorpions until it was disbanded in 2008 because of its anticorruption investigation into President Zuma.

In 2004, he founded G3, an international consulting firm that advises global companies, leading family offices and international law firms on risk and cybersecurity. In 2011, he sold G3 to Europe’s leading technology investment holding company.

He advised the 6th Duke of Westminster on the establishment of the new Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC) in the United Kingdom as a state-of-the-art center for the repair and rehabilitation of injured British military veterans.

André currently serves on several boards, including BlueVoyant in the United States, Ionir in Israel, the Haven Group in Luxembourg and ITC Secure in the United Kingdom. His previous board memberships include Omada, Balabit and Shape Security, which

C5 Capital successfully exited. He is an investor in the Vrye Weekblad, an iconic investigative newspaper based in Cape Town, South Africa.

In addition to his corporate board memberships, André serves on the Advisory Council of the United States Institute for Peace, a U.S. government agency dedicated to global conflict resolution. He is a member of the Atlantic Council Task Force on Critical Infrastructure and Cybersecurity. He developed and stood up the Cyber Alliance to Defend Our Healthcare, a voluntary coalition of 36 cybersecurity companies to protect the healthcare sector from cyberattacks during global pandemics.

André’s philanthropic activities include serving as a Director of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) and the Limitless Space Institute (LSI) a non-profit organization that cultivates leaders and develops technologies that enable space exploration.

André holds two law degrees and a master's degree in strategic studies from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth